It happened in 1946 in the Odisha Legislative Assembly. At that time, members of the House were allowed to speak only in English. But, the member from the Cuttack Sadar (East) constituency Sarangadhar Das defied the rule and started speaking in Odia. The then Speaker Lalmohan Pattanaik was taken aback and asked Das to adhere to the rule and speak in English.

Das was unfazed and continued to speak in Odia. He reminded the speaker that 10 years ago (in 1936), the new state was constituted by the British government solely on linguistic basis. The name of the state was Odisha and legislative Assembly was called Odisha Legislative Assembly.

"We represent the people, whose mother tongue is Odia. If I can't speak in Odia in the Assembly, am I expected to speak in Odia in the British Parliament in England?" he shot back.

The speaker appreciated his point of view but had to remind him the rules of the House and insisted that members should strictly follow the rules and speak only in English, not in Odia.

"This is an insult to my mother tongue. I shall only speak in Odia in the Assembly, whether the government likes it or not," said Das. A large number of members belonging to the Congress party in the House supported Das. Nothing more could be heard in the din. The speaker was forced to adjourn the House and referred the matter to then governor Chandulal Trivedy for his opinion.

The British government conceded. The members were allowed to speak in Odia.

The British government was aware of the fact that Das was not an ordinary member of the House. He did not have any problem in speaking English. He was a science graduate from Ravenshaw College, received training in agricultural technology at the University of Tokyo and Berkeley in USA. He was married to a Swedish woman called Frieda Hauswirth (who had an American background and had authored A Marriage to India in 1930). His command on the English language was never in doubt.

But, Das was aware that the majority of MLAs could neither speak English, nor understand it. To lend a voice to those members, he demanded that Odia be the medium of expression in the Assembly.

Sarangadhar's love for his motherland and mother tongue was so immense that he did not hesitate to give up a lucrative job and a comfortable life in America. He returned to his native place to start sugar plantation in the remote forests of Dhenkanal.

His dream project was virtually destroyed by the Dhenkanal feudatory estate.

Das was paying good wages to his workers and factory labourers at a time the ruler of Dhenknal treated his subjects as bonded labourers. There was a conflict of interest. The local residents gathered courage to defy royal orders to work without payment. The clash between the king and Das ultimately culminated in the destruction of his dream project. Taking advantage of the temporary absence of Das, the plant and the farm were destroyed by the king's goons.

Das realised that unless the people of the princely states were liberated, no development work could succeed. He plunged into the freedom movement. As a member of the Congress, he championed the cause of the oppressed people of the princely states of Odisha. Those, who had seen him playing tennis and gossiping in the exclusive top clubs with an aura of western sophistication were surprised by the way he mingled with the common men, throwing away his western attire, smoking bidi and wearing khadi cap and dhoti.

Das's ties with the West were quite deep. But his indomitable personality, which was built around his strong will power, took hardly any time to severe his links with western habits and mix with joyous teeming millions of India.

He waged a valiant struggle against the princely states. The movement is known as Prajamandal Andolan (people's movement) and he was general secretary of All-India Praja Mandal Andolan, which was headed by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Dhenkanal was the nerve centre of the movement. Subsequently, the movement spread like wildfire to other parts of the country. Sarangadhar always followed the Gandhian principle of non-violence. The movement led by him was always peaceful for which he was widely known as "Gadjat Gandhi" (Gendhi of the feudatory states).

Das was an admirer of philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and M.N. Roy. He was deeply influenced by the writings of Karl Marx. Patriotic poet Birakishore Das has recollected in his memoirs that when Congress members like him were regularly going through the writings of Mahatma Gandhi inside Berhampur jail, Sarangadhar was teaching Marxism to younger elements of Congress Socialist Party, who were imprisoned during the Quit India movement in 1942.

After the Socialist Party was formed in 1946, no wonder, Sarangadhar decided to join it. In 1946, he was elected to the legislative Assembly on a Congress ticket, but when he decided to join the Socialist Party, he resigned from the Assembly. Such democratic attitude is very rare today.

In the first general election in 1952, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Dhenkanal on a Socialist Party ticket and became the leader of Praja Socialist Party in Lok Sabha in 1956. Thus started his journey into the chequered career of the Indian socialist movement through its various ups and downs.

It was only due to his relentless work in the former princely states of Odisha and mass mobilisation in favour of integration into the mainstream, all princely states merged in Odisha. In that sense, Sarangadhar was one of the architects of modern Odisha.

I had the opportunity to work with him during 1956-57. At that time, I was in charge of editing Krushak, the weekly mouthpiece of the socialist movement of Odisha. After the end of Parliament sessions, he used to return to Cuttack and stay with me at the Krushak press. While going through the old issues of Krushak, I came across a number of articles written by him with the pen name of Landa Dehury. He exposed in these articles the perpetuation of exploitation of teeming millions.

He had told me that Landa Dehury was not a pseudonym. He was a man of flesh and blood. Dehury was a tall local tribal who had worked in his sugar plant as a manager. Sarangadhar had learnt the local dialect from him. He portrayed the sorrows and sufferings of oppressed tribals of Dhenkanal in their own dialect. Landa Dehury was the real protagonist of these stories, not he.

Sarangadhar dedicated himself to the service of the poor and exploited tribal community of the state. He established Navjeevan Mandal along with Malati Choudhury in Angul. He became a legend in his life time. Almost 50 years after his demise, he is remembered today as a champion of downtrodden for whom he lived and died. His love for the motherland and mother tongue remains unparallelled.

(The writer is a popular columnist)